The Music Room
by LexieBird
Summary: In which Rose finds a music room and the Doctor finds Rose in said music room and they have a conversation about stuff and nonsense and Romana. Doctor/Romana, hints of Ten/Rose.


Rose found the room not long after visiting the 2012 Olympics. It consisted mainly of a large hammock, that was easily the most comfortable piece of furniture she'd found so far. It had carpeted walls, that were a soft orangey-brown but somehow managed to be not ugly. It had taken a few minutes of poking around to figure out why the walls were carpeted; it was a music room. The speakers were invisible - Rose supposed they were some future-y high-tech thing - but the quality was unbelievable. She began to spend quite an amount of time in there, listening to her favourite songs and songs she'd never heard and even alien songs, that she actually ended up quite liking. One day, the Doctor found her.

"Hello," he said, as he entered the room. Rose, who had been lying on her back in the hammock, sat up and turned to face the door behind her.

"Hello," she replied, laying back down. He walked over, then paused a moment, standing next to the hammock.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked, gesturing to the hammock with a slight nod of the head. Rose shuffled over as much as she could, which wasn't much due to the slope of the hammock. The Doctor lay down beside her, the hammock swinging from side to side. Their hands found each other almost instantly, entwining fingers and gripping tightly. The song that had been playing faded, finished now, and a new song started up. Rose broke into a grin.

"This is Crowded House." She said happily, recognising the song. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her.

"You like them?" He asked, surprised.

"Mmmm. _And you will throw your arms around me_." She said, singing along quietly. He smiled at her.

"I would've thought you were more of a pop girl." He said.

"I don't mind a good trashy pop song." She confirmed. "But, like I said, they're trashy. But they're also catchy. I figure, I can like them, but know they're not great." They lay, listening, until the song finished, and another one started up.

"More Crowded House." The Doctor commented as the song began.

"Really?" Rose asked. "Doesn't sound like it."

"It's a cover." He explained. "Song's called 'Stuff and Nonsense'." They lapsed back into silence, until the Doctor spoke again.

"Do you think, whoever this song was for - do you think they accepted it?" He asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"What?" Rose replied, having no idea as to what he was talking about.

"Listen," he said; he'd timed it perfectly, so that just as he finished speaking the chorus began.

_"And you know that I love you,_  
_Here and now not forever._  
_I can give you the present,_  
_I don't know about the future,_  
_That's all stuff and nonsense."_

Rose listened in contemplative silence.

"Depended on how much she loved him." She said thoughtfully, as the chorus finished and the song continued into the verse.

"She?" The Doctor questioned. Rose just shrugged and neither spoke for a little, enjoying the song, until the Doctor posed another question.

"Would you?" Rose looked over at him, surprised, but gave it some thought before answering.

"Maybe, if it was the right guy." She said. "Like, if Jimmy Stone had come up to me and told me he loved me today, but he might not tomorrow, I probably wouldn't have taken it well. But… Maybe." She said, thinking about it. "A bit silly though." She commented.

"How come?" He asked, frowning. He hadn't thought it silly at all.

"Well, the future isn't stuff and nonsense. I've _seen_ the future." The Doctor smiled.

"Ah, but you can't see your _own_ future. Can't go forward in your own timeline." He said, clearly loving talking to her about things like this. Rose considered it.

"Mmm, but you can meet future versions of yourself, yeah? Ignoring paradoxes and stuff." She argued back.

"You can, yes - but is that you seeing your future, or other you seeing your past?" Rose sighed. "Got ya there, didn't I?" He teased, giving her hand a squeeze. The chorus began again, and there was silence as they listened.

"Would you?" She asked after the chorus ended, not expecting much of an answer.

"Yes." He said, after only a second of thinking. Rose turned on her side slightly and raised her eyebrows slightly. He met her eyes and shrugged. "I'd much rather a forever, mind you." He turned on his back and stared blankly at the ceiling. "But everything has it's time, and everything ends." He said, voice hollow. Rose gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. The song finished, faded away, but no new song replaced it.

* * *

"See, it's like this." The Doctor said suddenly. "I had a… a friend, once. She was a Timelord - well, Time_lady_, like me - well, not like me 'cause I'm not a lady, but… anyway. She travelled with me, for a while. And I… cared about her." He said awkwardly, still staring at the ceiling. Rose suppressed her jealousy carefully. "She was- she graduated top of the Academy. Constantly trying to prove she was smarter than me."

"Was she?" Rose asked with a cheeky smile, hoping to comfort him just a little.

"No!" He said adamantly. "'Course not. Smarter than me." He scoffed. "She was a bit - well, a lot of an ice-queen in her first regeneration. A bit softer in her second though - I guess I might've rubbed off on her a bit." He grinned, but it was only half-hearted.

"Did you rub off on her?" Rose asked, a bit of that jealousy showing. She winced at her insensitivity.

"Rose!" He reprimanded. "No. No, I did not." He squeezed her hand. "Sorry. I guess I needed to talk. You know me, chatterbox." He joked, and Rose realised that he needed to do exactly that.

"Keep going. Please?" Rose asked, leaning her head on his shoulder. It was that moment that she realised how stupid she'd been, over the Sarah-Jane thing; she _was_ special, she hoped, but that didn't mean she was the _only_ special person the Doctor had ever met, or travelled with. She wasn't better than the others, or more special - and she didn't want to be. Nine-hundred years, and she'd thought she was the only one - she wouldn't wish that on anyone. Especially him.

There was a few minutes before he spoke.

"We never spoke about it. So I never really - still don't really know. Never spoke about it. Bit like you and me, in that respect." Rose sat up a bit, surprised, but the Doctor kept his grip on her hand so strong she ended up lying down again.

"Sorry, what?" She choked out, but the Doctor continued as if she hadn't reacted.

"She was appointed Lady President not long before the War. We'd been seeing the ripples, through time, for a while before we actually knew what it was." He swallowed, and Rose gave his hand another reassuring squeeze, moving her other hand across her body to clasp around his. He turned from the ceiling, looking at her, almost surprised at her support. She gave him a small smile that he returned.  
"She made herself regenerate," he said, turning back to the ceiling, "for the war. So that she went back to her ice-queen persona, except more. Even less connected. We were still friends, but… Not. She didn't intend for that to happen, but it did. So there you go," he said, turning to her with a shaky smile, "there's my story." He made to get up, but Rose refused to let go of his hand.

"Stay." She commanded, pulling him back onto the hammock. The Doctor expected her to speak, to ask questions that he would push away, but instead she just lay back and closed her eyes. He smiled to himself. She knew what he needed better than he did - her company was good. Better than good.

"Hey," she said softly, "do you mind if I ask you a question? You don't have to answer."

"Sure." He said, but knew he may not answer anyway.

"What was her name?" Rose said, almost a whisper.

"She had a few, but…" He trailed off, and it was such a long time until he continued that Rose thought he wouldn't answer. "Romana, she was called. Romanadvoratrelundar."

"We should talk more often." Rose decided after a few minutes of silence, almost talking to herself.

"We talk all the time!" The Doctor protested, and Rose felt their conversation fall into the more standard best-friend banter.

"Yeah, but you seem to have an amazing talent of being able to talk for hours without really saying anything." She said, seriously, but then broke straight back into a lighter tone. "I reckon, if you were a girl, you'd be a _huge_ gossip." She said, nudging him slightly.

"Oi, I would not!" He protested.

"Would to."

"Fine. That's it, then." He said in mock seriousness. "Next time, I'm trying for a girl."

"What?" Rose asked.

"Next regeneration. I'll be a girl, and you'll see that I'd be a perfectly non-gossip-y girl." He said.

"You're kidding." He shook his head. "You can _not_- No, you can not regenerate into a girl." She said, shocked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Can to." He retorted, sounding like a seven year old. He got up to leave, and Rose stared after him. He knew she'd follow soon, so he made his way over to the door.

"No- you _can't_. You- Doctor? Doctor!" She got up and ran after him, leaving the hammock swinging freely.

* * *

_I'm sorry to anyone who likes Romana, and doesn't like what I did here. I think I like Romana. I wasn't mean to her, was I? I haven't seen **any **of her, so I'm going off the Doctor Who Wiki and other FanFics and stuff. This was going to be far more Ten/Rose than it ended up, and I'm glad that it turned out the way it did._

_Time to go watch The Ribos Operation, I think.  
Or shall I just skip straight to Romana II and watch Destiny of the Daleks?  
Or maybe that episode that I've heard about where they go run through Paris holding hands and giggling and being all romantic-y?  
Nah, start with the start, I believe. _


End file.
